MANILA (UPDATE) – President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday assured the public that Senator Leila de Lima will be safe while under detention for her drug case.

“I’m sure she’s safe. I think people are interested not to see her dead but to see her in prison for what she did,” Duterte told reporters in an ambush interview.

A Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court (RTC) last week ordered De Lima’s arrest for alleged drug trading and receiving pay-offs from New Bilibid Prison (NBP) convicts.

The senator’s camp has questioned the arrest, saying De Lima had a pending motion to quash the case on the basis of lack of jurisdiction by the RTC.

Duterte said he cannot say too much on De Lima’s case because “the court has taken jurisdiction. It is already the property of the court.”

Asked for his message for De Lima, Duterte said, "She can always pray that the truth will come out eventually, if there is another truth. Ako naman hindi mahilig mag-ano ng kapwa tao."

He also denied that he had a hand in the filing of drug-related cases against De Lima.

“I don’t know. Truth [be told], honestly, I’ve not called [Justice Secretary Vitaliano] Aguirre once. Iyan ang totohahan dyan. I don’t interfere with their jobs," he said.

De Lima is under detention at the police headquarters in Camp Crame.

The senator and her allies here and abroad have called the arrest a clear case of political persecution and a warning to those who criticize the president and his policies.

• READ: De Lima: Arrest meant to intimidate Duterte critics

“Unless you are involved in drugs, you should be. You are a critic of the drug campaign and you yourself are into drugs? Then you should be afraid,” Duterte said when asked about the supposed “chilling effect” that De Lima’s arrest has brought.